Zimbabwe’s challenge is that it keeps recycling leaders who have no new ideas of turning the country’s fortunes around, said Future Msebele Zulu, a former ZAPU Treasurer General, during a memorial lecture on the late nationalist, Thenjiwe Lesabe.
The Dumiso Dabengwa Foundation hosted the lecture on Wednesday to commemorate Lesabe, a ZAPU liberation struggle veteran and government minister, who died on February 11 in 2011.
Zulu said it was regrettable that people continued electing the same political figures who have passed their prime ideologically.
“We are recycling leaders who have reached ideological menopause nothing new can come- it is like wishing for a dead pig to fly. Most, if not all Zimbabwean political parties, have centred their politics around ‘rights’,” he said.
The politician explained that rights in this sense were what political parties thought they were entitled to.
“Even Zanu is concerned about rights – the rights of people to own land, the rights of black people to own businesses. Opponents of Zanu have talked about the Constitution and Human Rights abuses by the Zanu government,” he said but highlighted that what Zimbabwe needed was production.
“Without production, there can never be anything but extreme hardship and even if production exists but some people benefit far more than the majority, there will still be hardship.”
According to Zulu, Zimbabwe is currently facing a number of challenges, including corruption, nepotism, and inconsistency in policy formulation and implementation.
“Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has adopted no less than 17 economic blueprints. We need to ask ourselves, are we doing enough to change our situation? Have we done enough to socialise the next generation of leaders, in a way that they understand and interpret our conditions? Or it’s just a bhora mberi strategy that will not assist us at all,” he said.
Zulu explained production was the most important issue, followed by the distribution of the “fruits” of that production.
“Zimbabweans have long debated whether it is the Western countries or China that will build our economy and where the money is going to come from? These are the wrong questions. Wealth is created by human labour working on the products of nature,” he said.
“Money comes from production and reflects the amount of labour, which has gone into making a product. Money can only buy what we need; it cannot be worn, eaten or lived in. It is the means of exchange among the producers of different commodities. If you are not producing, then you cannot expect to have any money.”
This is why Zimbabwe cannot expect a stable currency, according to Msebele.
“Zimbabwe has both natural resources and human resources – basic means of production. What we are lacking is the will and ability to organise that production. This is where we need to change,” he said and added that the ability of the Rhodesian minority to hang on to power for long was based on their ability to organise production.
“China’s ability to raise itself from being a massive poverty-stricken country to becoming the country with the world’s second-largest economy is based on production. The British Empire
could not have been established without the production of the Industrial Revolution.”
According to Zulu, the Rhodesians realised that in order to avoid sanctions, they needed to first focus on building a strong national economy, which should be Zimbabwe’s current task.
“In order for this to happen, Zimbabweans must come together to build their own economy. That is why devolution is necessary. People in each ward, village, district or town know what is possible in their area and what meaningful contribution they can make. Neither must we forget the Diaspora,” he said.
The politician noted at the same time, no economy can grow without a national plan.
“A national plan must include both planning specialists in various fields and the input of
ordinary people engaged in day to day production,” he said.
Having a national plan requires professional management, Zulu said.
“If we have qualified and experienced Zimbabweans who can do the job, so much the better, but the idea that senior management should go to the relatives of politicians fresh from university is a recipe for disaster, which has been common throughout Africa.
“A management board of 12 should have 10 professionals and two government appointees
placed there to supervise government interests: not 10 government appointees and two overworked professionals.”
Meanwhile, Zulu described Lesabe, as one of the finest leaders to emerge from Zimbabwe, whose contributions and sacrifices cannot be forgotten.
“She was a great woman, a great teacher and a great politician,” he said, adding one wonders whose heroes are celebrated in Zimbabwe since Lesabe was denied hero status.
